Dancing With the Stars performs to songs from the blockbuster musical Wicked. The late Graham Greene appears posthumously in a touching guest role on FX‘s The Lowdown. NBC turns over Tuesdays to basketball with a double-header kickoff to the NBA season. NCIS resolves a cliffhanger with Agent Parker (Gary Cole) aboard a ship on which his vice admiral sister ordered an attack.
Disney / Eric McCandless
Dancing With the Stars
The Wicked phenomenon hits the dance floor, renamed the Ozdust Ballroom, as the remaining couples perform to music from Stephen Schwartz’s memorable score. Jon M. Chu, director of the blockbuster movie version (whose conclusion, Wicked: For Good, opens November 21), sits in as guest judge as the teams defy gravity while taking on Argentine tango, contemporary, foxtrot, jazz, rumba and quickstep routines. No one was eliminated during last week’s emotional “Dedication Night,” so it’s possible there will be a double elimination this week. And that would be wicked.
Shane Brown / FX
The Lowdown
The great Native actor Graham Greene (Dances With Wolves, Reservation Dogs), who passed away in September at 73, appears in a moving posthumous performance during a pivotal episode of the wry mystery dramedy. After a tense encounter with gubernatorial candidate Donald Washberg (Kyle MacLachlan), nosy journalist Lee (Ethan Hawke) follows a new lead that takes him to the home of a grandfather (Greene) who holds a key to the mystery surrounding the death of Donald’s brother Dale (Tim Blake Nelson). The answer to everything lies in the history of Oklahoma land deals, and just who’s trying to buy up valuable Washberg property becomes disturbingly clear.
Sonja Flemming/CBS
NCIS
Rogue Agent Parker’s (Gary Cole) reckless pursuit of his father’s killer, Carla Marino (Rebecca De Mornay), has led him aboard a ship where the Kansas City mob boss is planning one last score. (We’ve only seen her from behind, so I’m not 100% convinced.) A complication: His sister Harriet (Nancy Travis), a Navy vice admiral, has taken over the mission and is ordered to launch an airstrike on the vessel. That could get messy. Once that’s resolved, the all-NCIS lineup moves on to NCIS: Origins (9/8c), where young probie Gibbs (Austin Stowell) prepares for his first interrogation, and NCIS: Sydney (10/9c), promising revelations about the team’s forensics whiz Blue (Mavournee Hazel).
Disney / Patrick Harbron
Only Murders in the Building
The mood is somber among the residents of the Arconia, and not just because this has been the weakest season to date of the mystery-comedy. In Season 5’s penultimate episode, just about everyone is packed but Oliver (Martin Short), who decides to throw a “Last Supper”-themed party for the tenants being forced to move out by billionaire Camila White’s (Renée Zellweger) plans to turn the legendary building into a casino. But first there’s still the mystery of doorman Lester’s death to solve — and the robot LESTR could lead the amateur sleuths to an epiphany.
NBA Opening Night (7:30 pm/ET, NBC): NBC, which previously aired NBA games from 1990 to 2002, is back in business with prime-time basketball, kicking off the official season with back-to-back games. First up is reigning champ the Oklahoma City Thunder and MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, hosting the Houston Rockets. Followed by a second game with the Golden State Warriors visiting the Los Angeles Lakers (approximately 10 pm/ET).
INSIDE TUESDAY TV:
- Murder in a Small Town (8/7c, Fox): Teen Wolf‘s Tyler Posey guest stars when Karl (Rossif Sutherland) investigates an attempted murder and finds evidence linking this crime to the unsolved murder of the victim’s daughter. Followed by a new episode of Doc (9/8c).
- Breaking the Deadlock: Truth Under Fire (9/8c, PBS): The provocative series, which convenes a panel of experts from all sides of the political and media spectrum, returns with a new fictional scenario in which the participants debate the fallout from social-media disinformation that erupts after a controversial school board mandate.
- Top Guns: The Next Generation (9/8c, National Geographic): Graduation Day looms in the season finale, but first, the fighter pilot students face one last dogfight to prove they have what it takes to earn those coveted wings.
- Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud (9/8c, HBO): A documentary short profiles a seasoned war journalist and filmmaker who in 2022 was killed by Russian soldiers, the first American journalist to die while reporting on the war in Ukraine.
- Frontline (10/9c, PBS): The investigative biography “The Rise of RFK Jr.” details the trajectory of the controversial activist who was appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services.
- High Potential (10/9c, ABC): The whimsical procedural adopts a Halloween vibe when the team investigates the death of a wealthy lawyer in his haunted Victoria mansion.
ON THE STREAM:
- Chad Powers (streaming on Hulu): Chad’s (Glen Powell) success on the college football gridiron has caught the attention of ESPN’s College Gameday. They want an interview with the yokel who’s actually the disgraced Russ Holliday in disguise. Will his mask slip?
- Who Killed the Montreal Expos? (streaming on Netflix): A documentary explores the troubled history and demise of the pro baseball team that played its last game in Montral in 2004. (The franchise relocated to Washington D.C. and became the Nationals.)
- Michelle Wolf: The Well (streaming on Netflix): The comedian returns to the streamer with a set riffing on serial killers and new motherhood.